The Flash – Invasion!

By: Stacy Miller

When alien creatures arrive, superheroes assemble for a battle of Heroes vs. Aliens. The episode opens with The Flash (Barry Allen) and Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) in a perilous situation. “You come to me for help and now we are up the creek!” Oliver tells Barry. The team of superheroes consisting of Thea (Willa Holland) as Speedy, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and members of The Legends of Tomorrow appear.

Flashback to 10 hours ago and Iris is telling Cisco, Caitlin and Joe (Jesse L. Martin) not to encourage Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) as his speed increases. Cisco (Carlos Valdes) makes a snide comment about keeping secrets as it is obvious he hasn’t forgiven Barry for not initially telling him about Flashpoint and the role it played in Dante’s death. HR (Tom Cavanagh) calls a meeting to talk about re-opening STAR Labs as a museum in two weeks. But his presentation is interrupted by a satellite warning about what appears to be a meteor crashing. The Flash speeds to the location where he finds a space ship has landed. It opens and some creatures come out. “Aliens!” Barry exclaims.

The following day, Lyla Michaels, Diggle’s wife and ARGUS director, tells Team Flash that the aliens are creatures called the Dominators who had mysteriously come to Earth in 1951 and left just as mysteriously. They had never been heard from again until then sent a message three months ago saying that they would be back, but posed no threat to humans. Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) asks Team Flash to stand down and let the government handle the aliens. Lyla tells them she’ll be in touch and then leaves. But Barry has no intention of standing down because that’s not what heroes do yet he’s smart enough to know that he can’t handle these aliens alone – he’ll need a little help from his friends.

Barry arrives in Star City just in time to save Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) from Vigilante’s bullets. He tells them he needs their help, telling them about the aliens. “I swear to God, Barry my life was normal before I met you,” Diggle says. Felicity had called Thea, who says “Count me in.” Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) thinks they are out of their minds, how can they fight aliens when there are only four of them?

So, it’s off to get The Legends – Sara, Stein, Jackson, Mick and Ray (Caity Lotz, Victor Garber, Franz Drameh, Dominic Purcell and Brandon Routh). “Egotistical but catchy,” Thea says when Sara tells her that they are called Legends. Since they are fighting aliens, Barry and Cisco go get their own and arrive at the apartment of Kara Danvers a/k/a Supergirl and take her to where the other superheroes are assembled. “Best team up ever!” Felicity says excitedly. Meanwhile, the Dominators are also assembling. Through subtitles, we find out that the Dominators want the human’s leader brought to them, saying this war will be over before it begins! Not a threat indeed.

Kara familiarizes herself with the names of the team and their abilities. “Oliver Queen is Green Arrow? Oh my God, he just got way hotter!” Iris (Candice Patton) says. Next order of business, choosing a leader. Since he was the one who brought them all together, Oliver nominates Barry, much to Cisco’s chagrin. Barry suggests that they train to fight aliens by suiting up and going a few rounds with Supergirl. Wally wants to train with the team, but Iris is against it. She reasons that everybody else have been doing this for a long time so it would be dangerous for him to join this fight. “If you screw up, you could die,” Iris tells her brother.

Stein and Jackson play the recording for Barry and Oliver of the message from Barry Allen from the future in which Future Barry from 40 years from now warns them not to trust his present day counterpart. Barry tells them about the Flashpoint timeline he created which gave Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) powers, killed Cisco’s brother and changed Diggle’s daughter to a son. When the team learn about Flashpoint, they obviously lose trust in Barry as a leader. Meanwhile, the Dominators kidnap the President.

Mick tells Kara how he got the name Heatwave, but he refuses to call her Supergirl or Kara, deciding to call her “Skirt” instead. Mick knows how to lighten the moment. Then, Thea, Diggle, Kara, Mick, Sara, Ray and Jackson face the Dominators who zap them.

Wally reminds Iris that he’s faster and better than Barry was when he first got his powers. After Iris leaves the room, Wally asks HR to train him. Oliver is giving Barry a pep talk in which he reminds him that people make choices that effect everybody else. “You’re not a God, Barry” Oliver says. Their conversation is interrupted by the news that their friends are in trouble. But when Barry and Oliver arrive at the location, they are immediately attacked by their fellow superheroes who appear to be under some sort of mind control from when they were zapped by the Dominators. Barry and Oliver take cover and we are at the opening scene of the episode when the superheroes appeared yet not to assist but poised for an epic fight. The Flash faces Supergirl while Oliver squares off against White Canary a/k/a Sara with Speedy (Thea), Atom (Ray), Heatwave (Mick) and Firestorm (Jackson) throwing in their abilities for good measure. Wally as Kid Flash speeds in to help, but as predicted by Iris gets hurt. He returns to STAR Labs where HR agrees to train him.

Although the mind control eventually wears off, everyone but Barry get beamed away.